Reference: Book II: Subject Clearing
Subject Clearing is a method for taking any topic that confuses you and systematically dissolving the confusion. Think of it like decluttering a messy room — but the room is your mind, and the clutter is half-understood ideas. Here is each step, made plain, with a running example to show how it works.
1. Pick a Subject to Clear
Subjects usually come from four places: childhood, school, your profession, or life itself. Many of them jostle for attention at once. The simplest move is to start where your mind is already pulling you.
When you can’t decide, ask: “What subject, or part of life, is creating the most confusion in my mind?” List every answer that surfaces. Rank them from most to least relevant. Take the top one. That’s your starting subject.
Example. Imagine a man named Raj who feels vaguely uneasy about money but can’t say why. He lists what’s nagging him: “investing,” “inflation,” “taxes,” “budgeting,” “the stock market.” The one that makes his stomach tighten most is “the stock market.” That’s where he begins — not because it’s easiest, but because it’s pulling the loudest.
2. Clear the Subject Title
Before diving in, make sure you actually grasp what the subject is about. Often the title itself tells you. If it doesn’t, look at the postulate — the core assumption the whole subject rests on.
Example. Raj picks “the stock market.” Before reading a single article, he asks: what is this subject really about? He realizes the title alone is vague. The underlying postulate, he finds, is something like: people buy and sell shares of companies, and prices move with perceived value. Now he has a handle. The title is no longer a fog — it’s a starting postulate.
3. List and Arrange the Key Words
Brainstorm the key words the subject brings to mind. Then arrange them from the broadest to the most specific, starting from the subject’s postulate. You’ll likely need to clear each word’s definition as you go.
It helps to build a glossary — all the key terms with their definitions, kept alphabetical for quick lookup. Expect to refine these definitions as you learn. A glossary is a living document, not a finished product.
Example. Raj starts his glossary: company, share, price, value, dividend, bull market, bear market, index. He arranges them broadly-to-specifically: company → share → price → value → dividend → index → bull/bear market. Already, just by ordering them, he sees that “value” sits beneath “price” — price is what you pay, value is what something is worth. That one ordering cleared up a confusion he’d carried for years.
4. Observe the Anomalies
As you line up the key words in logical order, notice the anomalies — the things that don’t fit. Examine definitions for arbitrary data (made-up filler that hides gaps). Strip out the arbitrariness and expose the holes. Then look for contradictions between definitions — those reveal more gaps. Finally, ask what concepts should be there but are missing.
The purpose of this step is simple: become aware of every hole in your understanding. You can’t fix what you can’t see.
Example. Raj notices an anomaly: everyone talks about “market efficiency” (prices reflect all known information), yet also about “bubbles” (prices go irrationally high). Those two ideas contradict each other. He spots the hole — his glossary has no concept for irrational behavior or crowd psychology. Something’s missing. That missing piece is now visible, which is the whole point.
5. Study the Subject
Now read the available material, hunting specifically for data that fills the holes you’ve exposed. Prioritize the subject’s postulates and beginning concepts — the foundation, not the fancy upper floors.
Read one paragraph at a time. Don’t move on until you fully understand the current paragraph. Use Word Clearing (looking up any unclear word) and stay alert for anomalies as you go. New concepts? Add them to your key-word list and glossary. Refine definitions as needed.
Example. Raj reads a beginner’s book on markets, one slow paragraph at a time. He hits the word “leverage,” doesn’t fully grasp it, stops, and looks it up — that’s Word Clearing. He adds “leverage” to his glossary with a plain definition: borrowed money used to amplify a bet. Later he reads about “margin calls” and realizes it connects directly to leverage. His glossary is weaving itself into a web of understanding rather than a pile of terms.
6. Build Up the Foundation
Keep growing the key-word list and refining the glossary until the subject’s foundations feel complete. As you do, you’ll uncover misunderstandings and anomalies in your own thinking — not just in the material. Clearing those up is what actually shrinks your confusion.
Example. Weeks later, Raj’s glossary has grown to forty-odd terms, each with a definition he actually understands. He re-reads his early notes and laughs — he’d once defined “dividend” wrongly. He fixes it. More importantly, he notices he no longer feels that stomach-tightening dread when someone mentions the stock market. The confusion hasn’t been suppressed; it has dissolved, because the holes got filled.
The Payoff
Work through subjects this way and you’ll feel a genuine relief — not the surface comfort of having “studied” something, but the deeper relief of a mind that no longer carries around unanswered questions like loose change in a pocket. Each subject you clear lightens the load, and the method itself becomes second nature: pick, clarify, arrange, find the gaps, study, rebuild.
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